Catalogs vs. eMail Marketing

Cannot afford to hire a dedicated email marketing person? Consider reducing the number of catalogs you send out.
Look at the facts:

A 68-page catalog costs $0.30 to print and $0.28 to mail = $0.58 each.
People who don’t buy from a catalog within the first 12 months, are only 3% likely to buy in the future.

If your company mails consumer catalogs, consider removing all rented names and “prospects” who have never bought—even if they asked to be on your list. Prospects can still get your catalog (you can email a link) as a PDF from your website. Another solution is to upload your catalog to scribd.com (free) and send links to that. On your website, give multiple options for viewing your catalog. Click here to see Rose Publishing’s catalog page.

Our company found that by limiting our catalogs to people who have bought in the past two years and to outbound boxes, we were able to afford an email marketing person. Net effect? Our sales rose and our costs stayed the same.

Note: Don’t stop mailing catalogs to those who have bought — especially those who’ve bought in the past 12 months and those who make large purchases. Catalogs grab people’s attention and motivate online purchases.

Are you spending money on the same old thing even though it no longer works?